“Two Poets”

A woman by the
name of Sappho who was from an island called Lesbos in Greece ( Coles and Symes,
66). She was known as a poet and a fantastic instrumentalist during the era of
the 3rd century BCE(Coles and Symes,66). Sappho was the first to emerge
the style of writing called lyrical poetry and composed beautiful songs google.com.
Her poems were about love of women and expressed how she felt about the famous
war on Troy, also known as The Trojan War google.com. Her bodies of works of
work spread across a total of nine books which left behind her focal points on
mainly her love and admiration and dedication for women, as well as war (Coles
and Symes,66). However, women did not have a voice when it came to voicing how
they felt, yet she broke barriers by sharing her voice which resonated with
Lesbos, and all of Greece through her songs google.com. For example, from her
poem whose name isn’t known called “Fragment
16” says “Some say an army of horsemen, others say foot soldiers,
stills others say fleet is , the finest thing on the dark earth (Coles and
Symes, 66).”

                Tyrtaeus
who was a man pf Sparta in the era of the 6th century BCE was a poet
that stressed his motives and ideals on hoplite men who were warriors (Coles an
Symes, 67). He overlooked the universal apsects of distinction, allure, and righteousness
(Coles and Symes, 67). His poetry spread throughout Sparta and got the
attention of Spartan warriors who were sent into battle in one of the many great
wars called “The Second War of Messenian” google.com. Tyrtaeus helped endorse
morale of the Spartan people and their society google.com. Over the course of
his poems, he devoted his strong intellect and vindicated the Spartan charter
google.com. For example, in “The Beautiful and the Good” says, “If no
account is taken of a warrior who is a wanderer, if there is no respect for him
or his family in the future, then let us fight with all our hearts for this
land and die for our children (Coles and Symes, 67). His poetic eloquence informed
people across Greece of the strength of Spartan men.

                Based
on these observations, Sappho and Tyrtaeus works are very different, but share
various viewpoints about war. However, Sappho’s works
were often times frowned upon because of how she conveyed a deep affection for
women which was seen as unacceptable. Since, Sappho is a woman she had to work twice
as hard to get her message across. On the other hand, Tyrtaeus wrote mainly
about war and about how Spartan men were trained. He gave us an inside look
into the hoplite warfare and their strategic tactics. Sappho and Tyrtaeus are
inspirations for the generations of poets that came after them.